Russian officials aren’t engaging in the Paris Agreement on climate change, which might not be a bad sign, an Obama administration official said Tuesday.
U.S. Special Envoy on Climate Change Jonathan Pershing said at an Atlantic Council event that the Russians haven’t attended any of the preliminary meetings ahead of a major climate change meeting next month. But, Pershing says that lack of engagement is tacit approval by the Russians.
“The Russians were invited and didn’t come,” Pershing said of the meeting ahead of next month’s conference. “In some ways, I think that’s the current story of Russia. It’s not so much that it’s stopping things, it’s just not engaging.
“At the end of the day, the fact that they’re not blocking things is an important signal.”
Russia is one of the few major carbon-emitting countries that hasn’t approved the Paris Agreement, the world’s first major climate change agreement. The lack of engagement from the world’s largest country, which is a major oil power and the world’s fourth-biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has raised skepticism about how the agreement will work.
The agreement entered into effect without the Russians earlier this month when more than 55 countries accounting for more than 55 percent of the planet’s carbon emissions endorsed the deal. The agreement aims to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius. Many scientists blame climate change, and the subsequent warming of the globe, on the burning of fossil fuels.
Pershing said the Paris Agreement will have a major effect on Russia regardless of whether the country decides to join the pact. The European Union’s ambitious renewable energy goals could seriously harm the Russian petroleum industry, which sells most of its wares to Europe.
“If the rest of the world moves down this structure of a change in price, the future Russian leadership … is going to have to manage this,” he said.
